Who and what are the key drivers of our purchasing decisions in Britain? Find out everything our research uncovered below…
It’s no secret that a plethora of factors can influence purchasing research and decisions. Preferences, budgets, personalities, and opinions of others can all impact our purchasing behaviours.
From tempting discounts to deferred payment options – we wanted to find out what really makes us tick when it comes to our purchasing decisions.
What did we find out? Continue below to see what we discovered about purchasing research and decision-making in Britain…
We started by surveying the public to understand the key influences on purchase decisions and product research. We covered a huge range of topics, including discounted prices, pay-later options, delivery options, other people’s opinions, and social media.
The data was gathered and analysed before we were ready to share all the insights here.
“Businesses should never underestimate the power of collecting and utilising customer data. Looking at how your typical customer behaves and knowing the reasons behind this can be incredibly valuable for businesses. Whether you use it to generate marketing campaigns that target your customers effectively or launch products with methods that match common customer purchasing behaviours, you can boost your sales while making sure customers feel understood.”
Google was by far the most popular option for researching products, with 87.5% of survey participants stating that this is one of their go-to research methods. This was followed closely by reviews on the website of purchase (43.1%) and physically going to look at the product in-store (43.1%).
In terms of where users first go for pre-purchase research, Google also took the top spot, with 58.2% of participants stating that this is the first place they go. Interestingly, there were no significant differences across generations, with most reaching for Google regardless of age.
This was followed by the website of purchase at 22.2%, which is the second most popular option amongst 16–24-year-olds. Social media took third place, with a measly 7% choosing to go down this route for their initial product research. This suggests that social media isn’t as important in the initial research stage as more traditional routes.
Only 2.4% of participants said reviews weren’t important at all to them, and 6.6% said they didn’t think they were that important.
However, our research uncovered that reviews are important to a vast majority of customers and should be a key consideration in their customer service strategy. A whopping 9/10 said that reviews are important, whether that be somewhat important (51.6%), or very important (38.4%).
Almost half of the participants (47.5%) said that reviews were very important for considered purchases, and 42% said they were somewhat important.
Again, only a very small percentage (7%) saw reviews as not that important, and just 3.5% said they weren’t important at all. A considered purchase often requires more research, and having reviews available for these types of products can be valuable for helping with decision-making.
Sale prices can be a huge purchase influence, with over 3 in 5 (60.6%) admitting having bought something they didn’t plan to buy or even need, simply because it was on sale.
The other 2 in 5 (39.4%) had slightly more willpower over their decisions, since they said they haven’t been influenced to buy something unnecessary due to it being on sale.
Sale prices and temporary-use discount codes influence a whopping three-quarters (75.9%) of shoppers. Just 5% of participants said that they’re never influenced at all by this.
Because of these figures, it can be vital for businesses to check their discount codes are working. It can be annoying for customers to reach the checkout and not be able to use their discount code, so businesses should always check that they work to avoid this common frustration.
It’s true – British shoppers love a bargain. Our research revealed that only 4.8% of participants say they don’t shop around for the best price when purchasing something, with almost three-quarters (74.9%) stating that they do, and 20.4% that ‘sometimes’ do.
Paying later or in instalments might be a new concept for some, although the reality is that it’s something that’s been going on for quite a while. Many retailers throughout the last few decades have been offering store cards allowing their shoppers to pay later for things they’ve purchased in store.
However, ‘newcomers’ from the past few years such as Klarna (launching in the UK in 2016) and Clearpay (launching in the UK in 2019) have been instrumental in launching the more recent BNPL phenomenon.
Just over a quarter (25.7%) of participants said they’d be more inclined to purchase something with a ‘pay later’ option, while 14.9% were unsure. However, the majority – almost 3 in 5 (59.4%) stated that this wouldn’t affect their decision.
The younger generations seem to be more influenced by BNPL, with 44.5% of 16–24-year-olds stating that the availability of a ‘pay later’ option would make them more inclined to buy, along with 32.6% of 25–39-year-olds.
5.7% of participants said they click on social media ads multiple times daily, and 5% said once a day.
Surprisingly, just under half of the participants (47.3%) said they rarely or never click on product ads on social media.
However, this also means that the other 52.7% do click on social media ads selling products.
Almost half (48.5%) of shoppers click on social media product ads ‘a few times a month’ or more.
Almost 3 in 10 (28.4%) admit having purchased a product directly through social media. With the rise of in-app eCommerce experiences, such as TikTok Shop and Instagram Shop, we’ll likely see an increase in people purchasing directly through social media as time goes on.
Despite this, a massive 71.6% of participants said they had not purchased directly through social media.
The generational gaps are most obvious here, with more young people having purchased a product directly through social media than any other age group. Around a third of 16-24-year-olds (37%) and 25-39-year-olds (37.2%) admit to having bought items directly from their social media.
Our participants were more influenced by the people around them than by social media Influencers. 38.7% admitted having purchased a product due to someone they know using or wearing it, compared to just 22.8% having purchased due to influencers wearing or promoting it on social media.
Almost a quarter of participants (24.4%) admitted to purchasing an item based on someone else’s opinion persuading them, even when they didn’t like the item that much! It’s interesting to see how much a second opinion can sway purchasing behaviour.
A quarter of participants (25%) said that they often get second opinions from friends and family pre-purchase, and 42% said they sometimes do. It’s interesting to see that ‘word of mouth’ is still a catalyst for purchase today, as it was in the past.
Despite this, just under a third (33%) said that they don’t.
When combining survey responses for ‘yes’ and ‘sometimes’ to this question, a huge 63.5% of participants made it clear that sustainability is a key influencing factor in their purchase decisions.
Despite this, there’s also a huge chunk (36.5%) that said sustainability does not influence their purchase decisions. As more research is conducted into eco-friendly products and sustainable business practices, it’ll be interesting to see how these percentages shift.
Eco-delivery is an option that many retailers are offering these days, and rightly so.
In total, 46.8% said eco-friendly delivery was important to them (8.1% said it was very important, and 38.7% said it was somewhat important).
Despite this, 37.2% said that it’s not that important to them, and 16% said it’s not important at all! Again, this will be an interesting opinion to monitor since more and more retailers are switching to eco-delivery options.
From these results, it seems that shoppers want the convenience of having their online purchase as soon as possible, with 22.8% stating having the option for next-day delivery as ‘very important’. It appears that customers expect to receive their purchase almost as quickly as if they went in-store to buy it in person.
The majority (45.1%) said next-day delivery was somewhat important, and just 4.8% said it wasn’t important at all.
Generally, it seems that people care more about next-day delivery than they do about the delivery option being more eco-friendly.
Looking closer at delivery costs – a huge 98.6% said that delivery cost affects their purchase decision, whether it’s a lot (36.1%), quite a lot (47.5%) or a little bit (15%).
Only 1.3% said that delivery cost doesn’t affect their purchase decision; something for retailers to bear in mind when considering shipping suppliers and costs.
It seems that customers want to feel like they’re getting more for their money. Say they’re buying a £10 item and delivery costs £4.99. This wouldn’t seem like the best deal compared with other retailers offering free delivery over a certain amount. We’re sure that many people would opt to buy more just to save on delivery, as they feel like they’re getting more for their money.
54.5% of the survey were confident that they aren’t impulsive buyers, which is something that the 17.1% of ‘yes’ respondents could only dream of. There were also 28.4% of participants that admitted to being occasionally impulsive in their purchase decisions.
